Monthly Archives:
April 2013

Deciding when to go global is a tough call for entrepreneurs. They may be tempted by opportunities in hot markets like China, India or Brazil, but could risk venturing abroad before they’re fully prepared. “Many companies expand too quickly,” says Jon Fjeld, executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Duke University. While selling overseas extends your company’s reach, he says, you don’t want to move into international markets too soon and use resources you need to continue growing on your home turf.

Project planning is an art. It involves breaking a goal down into small tasks, then assigning and scheduling those tasks so the work continuously moves toward the finish line. Traditional project planning tools are designed to handle a complex series of tasks. They’re perfect for programmers and engineers but for the average small-business owner, it can be a steep learning curve. Why not start with something simpler? Here are three iPad apps that take a more creative approach to planning a small project.

By: Mike Birdsall, an EO San Francisco member and co-founder of Birdsall Interactive

I never planned to own my own business, and I definitely didn’t plan to work alongside my wife. But in 1994, that’s the situation I found myself in. When I tell people that my wife, Maureen, and I work together, they tell me I’m crazy … and then they want to know how we do it so well.

So 2013 is underway, my wife and I just brought twin girls home from the hospital, I turned 40 and my travel startup—BootsnAll—recently launched its most ambitious product ever. With all of this in mind, I’ve done a fair bit of reflecting. In the past 15 years, I have learned a lot about building a successful startup, and I thought it would be fun to share a few stories (and lessons learned) in the process. So, here are three things I might change if I were launching my business today:

When you’re building a company across borders with a multinational team, dealing with people from different cultures and relying on them to get things done on time and on budget—across three or four times zones no less—can be quite challenging, to say the least.